I realized this morning when I was tending to the cheeses upstairs that I had not really talked about any of the cheeses I've been making-the successes and the failures. At least there have been more success than failures!
The fantastic wine fridge that I got a little before Christmas has been refitted with wooden shelves that are now full of assorted cheeses in various stages of aging.
We've got the farmstead cheese, that I made right before we left for Thailand. I waxed it and it should be ready to eat any time. It should be good-I hope it's good! Waiting to actually taste to the cheese is killing me! Even if the cheese looks right, doesn't mean it will taste right, so rationally I would wait to taste a cheese before making it again....but of course I don't!
I have made two beer infused cheeses so far. The first one is about half eaten and turned out pretty good! I soaked the curds in our IPA, and man can you taste it! But of course I made another one before we even tried the first one-this one with a Stone Belgian Ale. Nope, no idea if this one is any good!
Finally a cheese I've made more than once! This is the second time I've made it to be exact. Drunken Goat cheese is one of my favorite cheeses I've made and as soon as it was gone, I had to make it again! This second time around, I'm going to soak it in wine a little longer than I did last time, and it should be ready to eat in a month or so-and this time I KNOW it's gonna be good! Plus, it's really pretty!
On to a new experiment-Camembert! I'm pretty sure I made this right. For now, I'm just keeping my eye on it. I have to flip the cheeses so the white mold grows evenly-assuming it grows at all. Mold should start growing in about a week-hopefully only white mold grows on these!
The other day I made a cheese that I have been wanting to make for a while. I don't know why it's taken me so long to make it-either fear that I wouldn't do a good job or fear that I would do a great job and I would eat it EVERY day! Well damn, I had it today and it's pretty freaking great! Halloumi cheese-how I love you!
What makes this little cheese so special? It doesn't melt! Fry it up and it get crispy and delicious, without actually melting. Kind of like eating a mozzarella cheese stick-but better! If I was on a deserted island, I would need this cheese...and a frying pan! It is trouble that I can make this is less than a day, with only a gallon of milk!
I should write a post about how I actually make cheese, instead of just reporting about what I've done, and I will someday soon. It's pretty obvious how I'm spending my winter-making loads of cheese! With Frannie and Snowy both hopefully in milk this summer (it's too soon to tell if they are pregnant but I have my fingers crossed!) I'll have more milk to deal with, so experimenting this winter should hopefully really help me out this summer!
Time to go fry up a little more Halloumi!
